Summer fun

This summer has been interesting so far. 

We started our summer with dentist visits. 4 of the 5 kids had cavities. For some reason, Taylors were the worst…

We’ve had friends in and out all summer, and i LOVE it! One is even “adopted,” and loves reminding us about it.

Taylor has pretty much just chilled. We tried to get the lawnmower functional, but nothing has made it work. We changed the oil, we changed and replaced the gas, we cleaned the air filter, we changed the spark plug, we cleaned out the undercarriage. Sad to say, the yard is toast…

Elizabeth spent a week in june at girls camp. She says she has fun, and i think she did. She had fun figuring out gifts for secret sister. And she actually found some really cute things. The next weekend she spent with a newer friend, and they had a blast!

This week, they are both on Trek. Sure hope they are surviving the 90+ temps we are dealing with this week. 

Shannon and Ashley have made a new friend. Her mother is a manager at the arctic circle they built next door. This new friend has been so good for these girls. She’s my new “daughter”!

Michael has struggled. I have a hard time remembering that my other kids were running around town finding new friends at his age. Considering that one of his friends lives 2 miles down the highway , i might be more justified than i feel some days. 

Me, i was asked to be a scout leader shortly after we moved in. The middle of june, we did day camp. I was a little worried, we haven’t had a great track record getting many of our boys to show up to activities. But, we ended up with most of our boys going. It was actually a lot of fun. And the boys had a blast. Other than that, i work.

Aside from me, i guess there’s a lot going on…

Gonna try this again…

I’ve had a hard time keeping up again.

For one, it’s kinda difficult doing it on my phone, and pictures are down-right impossible …
Second, we seem to lead a pretty boring life around here.

But, i’m going to try again.

new do

ashley had been asking for a haircut. i was finally able to do it. the goal was to give her a chin length cut. this is what ended up happening...

 (her face is misleading. she actually likes it.)

new digs

our new place has a single bathroom. and i use bathroom loosely....

we have a toilet room, and a separate shower room, but no tub. as there are times that a tub is greatly desired, and sometimes even needed, i started doing some searching, and came up with the following solution. this, is a medium sized inflatable tub. and although it takes about 20 minutes to fill, it works quite well.

gluten free

first of all, i absolutely love breads, in all their forms. but in the last couple of years, i started noticing a pattern in my life... i was avoiding them. the cinnamon rolls, the donuts, the muffins, the bread itself. and then i paid attention to pattern and noticed the finer patterns it was comprised of. bread was making me sick. it was causing me to feel sick, to have an upset stomach, and on occasion, causing a migraine.

as a result, i started moving towards a gluten-free diet. i found new respect for those that are celiac, or have any other food allergies that limit their ability to eat food. it can be incredibly difficult, and extremely frustrating at times.

we recently moved, and as such, i needed to find a solution for the sacrament at church. the previous ward did gluten-free bread for everyone. the new ward is struggling to figure out how to fulfill my need. what surprised me most, is that there were a few other people in the new ward with the same requirements, but none of them had spoken up about it. they merely did not partake.

Liberty bell

Elizabeth had a history project. She chose the Liberty Bell. How do you make a copy of the liberty bell?! Rice krispies of course, 

and fondant! (I forgot to mention, the fondant was root beer flavored…)

*she got 100% on this!

hiatus

i inadvertently took quite a hiatus from here...i kept up with nearly everything else though....

so, for a quick update, the family dynamics have changed.
we've moved a few times.
lost some friends, and gained some new ones.
everyone is a few years older as well.

overall, things are doing well.